Holmes' Firearms Inexperience May Have Saved Lives

It's being reported in the mainstream media that the casualty count in the Aurora shooting could have been much higher but for the fact that the shooter's semi-auto rifle jammed. The Washington Post says authorities found a 100 round capacity drum magazine in the theater. While it doesn't say whether the magazine was empty or how many unexpended rounds it contained, if it was not empty, it could well explain the malfunctioning of the rifle.
Most of those familiar with military firearms know that drum magazines, while capable of providing a large ammunition capacity, have a long history of being prone to jamming more frequently than the more commonly used 20 or 30 round, straight-feed, box magazines. In fact, one of the main complaints about one of the most widely used weapons of WWII, the Russian PPSh-41 submachine gun, was the frequency with which its 71 round, drum magazine jammed during firefights. American troops had similar complaints about the less widely used Thompson...(Read Full Post)